Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photo
Sharon White and Jaguars Duende jump into top spot at CCI3*-L
Fair Hill, Maryland – October 19, 2024 – British Olympic team gold medalist Oliver Townend and Irish Sport Horse gelding Ballaghmor Class showed he had plenty left in the tank to wrap the cross-country portion on Saturday. Following the CCI5*-L Cross Country competition at the 2024 MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill presented by Brown Advisory, the pair is within striking distance as Townend eyes his first Maryland 5 Star victory after three consecutive third place finishes.
Ballaghmor, one of the greatest in the sport’s history, has led six times in five-star events after cross-country with three wins (Burghley 2017, ‘23) and Kentucky (2021) and is closing in on history. Win a win tomorrow at Maryland, he would join the elite club of Priceless (four) and La Biosthetique Sam (six) as the only horses with more than three five-star wins.
Townend currently leads with a score of 31.3, followed by David Doel (GBR) and 13-year-old Galileo Nieuwmoed with a score of 34.5, followed close behind by 2022 Maryland champion Tim Price (NZL) and Falco at 34.6.
“I thought that it was a very fair track, but it is a 5 Star, and this is the top of the sport,” said Townend (GBR). “As riders, you don’t want it to necessarily be easy and I thought that we would love to have more finishers, but at the same time if we have 80 runners, we’d have 40 finishers – so it is just a percentage game. For me, the footing, the course, the amazing crowds really give the feel of an exceptional event and an event that is going to be right up there with the very best in the world.”
After Saturday’s 3 Star Cross Country, Sharon White (USA) and Jaguars Duende ascended from 9th place after Friday’s dressage to take the lead with a score of 29.6. Sara Schulman (USA) held steady in second place on Cooley Chromatic, finishing their cross-country round with a score of 30.6. Alexandra Knowles (USA) and P.S. I Love You made an impressive jump from 14th place to 3rd, finishing with a score of 31.4.
“I couldn’t have asked Jag to be better today,” said White. “It was really a special day for her, she is a very good competitor and her mind is excellent. It is really nice to sit on a horse you know wants to go and fight for you and will think of nothing else but doing her job. The biggest thing I learned about Jag is that she is really as good as I think she is, which is really satisfying. It was a big test to come here knowing that Ian Stark’s courses are always intense, so it is very satisfying when a horse does it so easily.”
According to Equiratings, today’s 3 Star competition presented its most demanding challenge since it began running alongside the 5 Star event. Only 15% of riders—just 8 out of 53—managed to finish the cross-country phase within the optimum time, marking a sharp decline from previous years. In addition, the cross-country jumping clear rate proved to be the toughest yet, with only 53% of riders achieving a faultless round. This is a notable shift from the rates of 37% in 2021, 61% in 2022, and 68% in 2023.
This was course designer, Ian Stark’s final cross-country course, retiring from course design. This year’s course was the toughest test since five-star integration, involving 28 jumps.
“It wasn’t quite the day I was hoping to retire on, had there been a dozen go around, I would have been much happier,” said Stark, himself a three-time Olympic rider for Great Britain. “There were some unfortunate silly hiccups, but the good thing was that trouble was everywhere, it wasn’t one fence and from a designing point of view that is positive. I have had a great time here in Maryland and America as a whole and I have always said in mind and in my heart that this is the right time to retire.”